OUR BEST FRIENDS

Tag: registered

In its annual report on breed popularity in the U.S., the American Kennel Club notes that, while the Labrador retriever is again the most popular dog breed, other large breeds are quickly moving up the list, including Dobermans, giant schnauzers and Great Danes.

According to the AKC, it could be a sign of an improving economy.

“Owning bigger breeds – an economic indicator of sorts – has been on the rise during the past five years,” said Lisa Peterson, AKC spokeswoman. “As the economy has improved, people are turning back to the big dogs they love, which cost more to feed and care for than the smaller breeds that saw a rise in popularity in 2007 and 2008.”

Labs took the top spot for the 23rd straight year, the longest consecutive reign of any dog in the annual ranking. The rankings are based on the number of AKC dog registrations across the country.

Comparing those rankings to the 2009 list, there’s evidence of a decline in small dog popularity — Yorkies dropped three places, from third, dachshunds dropped two, from eighth, and shih tzus fell out of the top 10 entirely.

Some smaller breeds saw a gain in popularity, like the French bulldog (now 11th). But far greater gains were made by greatly sized dogs: Doberman Pinschers rose from 22 to 12; Great Danes from 27 to 16; and Bernese Mountain Dogs from 47 to 32.

The AKC announced its rankings Friday, in advance of the upcoming Westminster Kennel Club dog show at Madison Square Garden.

Three new breeds will compete this year: rat terriers, Chinooks, and Portuguese Podengo Pequenos.

(Photo: Ash, a lab, or perhaps a lab mix (we didn’t ask for his papers), at play; by John Woestendiek)

A local humane society in Kentucky mistook a Shiba Inu for a coyote, and released the dog into the wild.

The AKC-registered dog, a female named Copper, had been picked up by police and taken to the Frankfort Humane Society, which deemed her a coyote.

Lori Goodlett told The State-Journal that her pet of 11 years disappeared from her fenced back yard on July 3.

Only when she put up posters with her dog’s picture did a police officer recognize Copper as the dog he had taken to the shelter.

After the officer dropped the dog off, a shelter worker called police and said the animal had to be picked up because coyotes weren’t allowed there, according to an Associated Press report. (Apparently, the AP is no expert on the breed either, as it spelled it Sheba Inu.)

The Frankfort Humane Society turned the animal loose behind a home improvement store after consulting — apparently on the telephone — with a wildlife expert who said coyotes were nuisance animals and should be returned to the wild or killed.

A Humane Society official defended the actions. “If our manager assessed the animal to be a coyote, then it is against the law for it to be at the shelter. We rely on the people who work there,” said Humane Society board chairman John Forbes.

Goodlett, however, said she can’t understand how her dog was misidentified. “People would say when Copper was young, she looked like a fox with her pointy ears and red coloring,” Goodlett said. “But no one has ever mistaken her for a coyote.”

Police and volunteers are helping Goodlett search for her pet and have set cages in hopes of capturing her, and PETA has kicked in a reward as well — up to $1,000. “Copper needs to be home with the people who know and love her,” says PETA Director Martin Mersereau. “We hope that someone will find Copper so that she can be reunited with her family.”

“I know in my head Copper is gone for good, but in my heart I would like to think some nice family found her and took her in,” Goodlett said.

Five recent movies have slapped the “No animals were harmed” disclaimer on their end-credits without the permission of the organization that trademarked the phrase.

The American Humane Association, which monitors movie productions in which animals appear, says the five movies used the disclaimer without its approval.

The association has sent the studios and distributors connected to each production a cease-and-desist letter demanding that the unauthorized disclaimers be removed immediately from the theatrical and DVD versions of the movies.

American Humane said the registered disclaimer, when properly obtained, assures the public that animal actors used in productions were not killed or injured in any way, and that their well-being and safety were monitored by the association’s certified animal safety representatives.

The 130-year-old organization said the movie companies are misleading the public and creating “a significant breach of trust with audiences” by inserting the credit without authorization.

Some of the studios and producers have indicated they will remove the illegitimate credit, while others are making excuses or taking no action, American Humane said.

“We encourage filmmakers to work with American Humane, and for distributors to verify the legitimacy of the ‘No Animals Were Harmed’® credit, before approving and finalizing any film prints for theatrical release or DVD distribution,” said Karen Rosa, American Humane’s vice president in charge of its Film & TV Unit. “Viewers, too, should always look for the ‘No Animals Were Harmed’® end credit, and they can check our website to see what rating we assigned to films, based on their use of animals, and to find out how the animal action was achieved on films that we monitored.”

An Albuquerque man who gave his dog’s name when he was approached during a voter registration drive at a Wal-Mart two years ago didn’t think “Tuckup Koepke” would actually become a registered voter.

But he did.

Don Pizzolato says he filled out the paperwork with his dog’s name, and a fake birth date and social security number — not expecting he would end up registered to vote in Bernalillo County. A week later though, his dog received a voter registration card in the mail.

Pizzolato’s decision to go public with the story — on the website Duke City Fix – was in response to an op-ed piece in the Sunday Albuquerque Journal in which the county clerk said voter fraud would be “extremely rare.”

“In Tuckup’s case either name, address, Social Security number or species should have raised some sort of flag. Apparently none of this was a problem for the wizards charged with keeping the integrity of the electoral process somewhere north of Richard Daley’s Chicago,” Pizzolato wrote.

“Anyone want to take a guess as to how successful I would be if I repeated the experiment ten times (different pet names, of course).”

Pizzolato said his dog — you can look up Tuckup’s registration (voter, that is) here — isn’t really going to vote.

The county clerk he was attempting to refute, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, was less than amused with it all, and contacted law enforcement authorities after seeing the website contribution. Registration fraud is a fourth-degree felony.

Jane Balogh, 67, a grandmother and Army veteran had registered her Australian shepherd-terrier mix as a voter to protest lax standards for voters to prove their identity and citizenship. She used a utility bill in the dog’s name â€” Duncan M. MacDonald â€” as identification.

A King County District Court judge dropped a misdemeanor charge of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant, based on Balogh’s completion of the terms of a plea agreement reached in September 2007.

She paid $240 in court costs and completed 10 hours of community service at the Tacoma Rescue Mission.

According to the Times, Balogh made no attempt to hide the deception, telling a number of elected officials what she had done and putting a pawprint instead of a signature on an absentee-ballot envelope.